All good observations.

You can tell a lot about your future tenants from a few simple observations.

After much reading, "observing" and researching the current inventory of possible rental properties I ended up writing a contract on a leapfrog house last week and the financing is pending as I write.

Take a stroll around your local campus and simply observe the pervasive attitudes and views regarding how our economy works.

It can be depressing indeed being a landlord when you find yourself observing human wreckage day after day.

Don't have any source for my statistic, just personal observation over 30 years of investing in RE.all cash

Its people doing what you want to learn to do.In reference to the auctions, just go and observe.

Those articles in the Charlotte Observer show entire neighborhoods that have many many foreclosures and values dropping as buyers struggle with those subprime loans.

If so, there have been a series of articles in the Charlotte Observer as to problems with high foreclosures in many neighborhoods and one of the problems is developers having their own mortgage companies and letting purchasers get their downpayments from church group affiliations etc.

I think I might learn from the reading, but it's always good to observe and get feedback from an expert.